Seeking mutual benefits

What's immediately clear when speaking with Robyn Zeiger is her love for Dori Steele, her partner of almost 25 years.

They've been together almost as long as Zeiger has been at the university - first as a student, then as a lecturer in the department of family studies for more than 20 years. Yet the two most significant long-term relationships Zeiger has had are seemingly at odds.

For more than a decade, state officials have argued over whether the partners of homosexual faculty members at the state's universities are entitled to the same domestic partner benefits -- such as health insurance -- that are extended to heterosexual couples. The reluctance to grant those benefits has caused Zeiger's family undue stress.

This year, while Steele has undergone three surgeries on her shoulder, lower back and ovaries, has been particularly draining. Not only have medical costs set the couple back hundreds of dollars a month in premiums - money that would be covered by the state if Steele were a man - but it's also strained her emotionally.

"I feel like I'm a very patient person or, else I wouldn't be a therapist, but my patience is wearing very thin right now," Zeiger said of waiting for the university and state to extend benefits to Steele. "Especially with retirement looming, and Dori's insurance premiums going up. It's becoming more and more real."

ßThough a relatively small group of faculty members is affected on this campus, the university has increasingly turned its attention to affording them more rights, while others on the campus have become more optimistic with a newly-elected democratic governor at the helm.

While the decision hangs in the balance, Steele was forced to leave her job as a massage therapist in March to endure various medical procedures. While she recovers, the bills pile on.

Financially, the drawbacks of not having benefits reach deep. The university offers benefits to the spouses of employees that include health and dental insurance, coverage of dependents and bereavement leave, among others.

Equality Maryland, a state Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender advocacy group, cites studies that estimate workplace benefits comprise as much as 40 percent of overall compensation for employment.

"We're doing OK, but when you think of what else you could be doing with that kind of money..." Zeiger said, noting the impact large medical fees at this state in her and Dori's life will have on their retirement.

As a lecturer in the department of family studies and the University Honors Program, Zeiger teaches a class titled Exploring Homophobia: Demystifying Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues. Among other topics, Zeiger teaches students about legal and family issues facing lesbian and gay couples.

Her experience with the academic and practical sides of LGBT issues, along with Steele's recent medical problems, makes it harder for her to be patient with the lack of benefits.

"It is frustration more than it is resentment at this point," Zeiger said. "If I allow it to, sure it makes me angry, but at the same time, it's just an ironic situation."

"We just find it very ironic that [the university has] a lesbian and gay certificate program, but they won't offer domestic partner benefits to their longtime professor," Steele said.

Zeiger and Steele, who celebrated a commitment ceremony on their 20th anniversary in Maui in 2003 and married in Montreal last year, said they are a very normal couple who are hurt by the fact that their devoted relationship is not recognized.

"What people don't get is this is not about sex," Steele said. "You can have sex with whomever you want; that's not illegal. This is about who you want to be your family, and it's like they are saying, 'Well that's not a legitimate family member.' But for Robyn and me, we have each other and our three dogs, and that's our family."

The struggle to protect the rights of faculty members like Zeiger and Steele has been fought at the state level for more a decade, but lost momentum when former Gov. Robert Ehrlich took office. However, campus support for domestic partner benefits has continued to become more and more vocal.

At the University Level

The university is one of ten campuses in the 60-member Association of American Universities that does not offer domestic partner benefits to its faculty. At the end of last year, the campus took a small step toward granting homosexual couples further rights.

The University Senate approved a proposal allowing all university employees to "designate one qualified person in addition to himself or herself who shall be eligible for campus-based privileges," such as access to the gym, health center and other services, according to a report. Yet major benefits were not included. The proposal was an attempt to extend as many rights as possible without adding costs to the state, as well as a symbolic way to voice university discontent with the regents' policy.

According to Luke Jensen, the university's director of LGBT equity, "There is unequivocal support and active support from President Mote on the issue," a sentiment shared by many on the campus, according to Zeiger and many of her colleagues.

State Level

Still, the decision to extend benefits is largely out of university hands. The Board of Regents, with the governor's approval, must decide the fate of domestic partner benefits. But the growing concern has caused the regents to revisit the issue.

"Chancellor [Brit] Kirwan has stated his support of taking a deeper look at this issue this year and has agreed to refer it to the Board of Regents for a fuller examination of it, likely to begin after the legislative session ends," said John Buettner, the University System of Maryland's media relations manager, in an e-mail. "Until the Board has a chance to explore and discuss the full budgetary and administrative details surrounding domestic partner benefits, we cannot venture to say what its final stance or policy would be, nor what the configuration of a USM domestic partner benefits program would be like in terms of eligibility, extent of coverage and costs. Still, we expect the Board will give it its fullest attention and produce its recommendations within six months."

A new governor has brought new hopes for couples like Zeiger and Steele as well.

"Governor O'Malley certainly has a track record of being supportive of domestic partners and working to secure domestic partner benefits in the offices he has held before becoming governor," Jensen said, "and people who I trust very much tell me he is supportive."

The Personal Costs

In the meantime, Zeiger and Steele are biding their time.

"There are so few people that would really need the health insurance part of [domestic partner benefits] that it wouldn't even take that much money," Zeiger said. "But for us, if you add all of what it's costing out of our family budget, it's just unbelievable."

Ziegler has considered taking another job with better benefits, but her self-described love for the university has kept her here. She began studying at this campus as an undergraduate in 1968 and began working here 10 years later after receiving her doctorate from the department of health education.

"People say, 'You can work somewhere else, get health benefits somewhere else,'" Zeiger said, "But of course I'm not leaving the university, and am happy; I do love it there."

From her first day at the university, Zeiger said she has been open about her sexuality, and she's watched as campus attitudes toward LGBT people have grown more tolerant.

"I can remember when I was going to school at the University of Maryland, just feeling so invisible," Zeiger said. "Professors would talk about family issues with the assumption being that every student in that classroom was heterosexual. I felt very excluded."

In the early 1980s, Zeiger began her private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in LGBT issues and began counseling LGBT clients. Her experiences as a psychotherapist added to her academic knowledge of family and legal issues facing LGBT people and contributed to her teaching methods.

"A lot of the work I do with my clients is about going on a journey from shame to pride over the years by coming out," Zeiger said. "I think I'm a role model for many of my gay and lesbian students. I've had students over the years come talk to me after class, and more and more students literally coming out in class."

As her department and her students have embraced her, Zeiger calls the university her home. She is waiting for the day when her partner will be welcome in it.

"I'm not a religious person, but my favorite building on campus is the chapel, which I get to see every day working in Marie Mount [Hall]," Zeiger said. "One of my little dreams, and Dori knows this, is that if they did pass same-sex marriage, I'd like to have a wedding at the chapel. It's just a real special place to me, that's how much the university is a home to me. [Same sex couples] can't do that yet. Maybe one of these days we could."

Contact reporter Kevin Rector at rectordbk@umd.edu.